BookshelfMonstrosity: Magical rivalries are at the heart of these unconventional Fantasy novels, which play out over decades and against elaborate, atmospheric 19th-century backdrops. Their initially relaxed pacing gains momentum as the various narrative threads dramatically converge.… (more)

I've now read this book twice and enjoyed it better the second time. I realized, as I was rereading the book, that there was much I didn't remember from the first reading because I kept wanting to know what was going to happen next, that I skimmed parts the first time. The second time, while I didn't remember all of the details, I had a general recognition of what was coming, so I spent time savoring as I was rereading.

Maybe next year, I'll simply have to enjoy this book a third time -- it was that good. ( )

A second reading of this book was actually better than the first reading!!! How could that be?

With a year separating my reads, I didn't remember all of the details about the story from my first reading, but felt I remembered how much I enjoyed it and that this time I wanted to better understand the details inside the various tents. Also, with my first reading, I remembered that I rushed through wanting to get to what was next and then what was next after that. For my second read, I knew the general overview and truly wanted to savor the story page by page, line by line.

Indeed, I did savor this time and am thankful that I was asked to read the book a second time! (It was a for-me read the first time and a for-bookclub read the second time.)

I think I need to reread Discovery of Witches again for the same reason. I devoured that book in a too-short time... I need to go back to savor the read! ( )

This is one of those few books that almost defy description. It was lushly beautiful and the vivid scenery, clothes, circus, and people will stay in your imagination long after you've stopped reading. Simply put, it may be the most enchanting book I've ever read. It's about a circus, a duel between two young magicians, a clock-maker, the atmosphere of wonder, dreams, and soo much more. No descriptions can possibly do this book justice. It's a book I'm sure I'll come back to again and again, to read and to see in my dreams. Reading this evokes soo much imagination. I long to see Le Cirque des Reves more than I've ever longed to see a fictional place. An absolute must read, a feast not only your imagination, but your senses. ( )

Magic without passion is pretty much a trip to Pier One: lots of shrink-wrapped candles. One wishes Morgenstern had spent less time on the special effects and more on the hauntingly unanswerable question that runs, more or less ignored, through these pages: Can children love who were never loved, only used as intellectual machines? What kind of magic reverses that spell? It’s not as pretty a spectacle, but that’s a story that grips the heart.

I am a reader who should have hated this novel; yet I found it enchanting, and affecting, too, in spite of its sentimental ending. Morgenstern's patient, lucid construction of her circus – of its creators and performers and followers – makes for a world of illusion more real than that of many a realist fiction. There is a matter-of-factness about the magicians' magic, a consistency about the parameters of the circus world, that succeeds both in itself and as a comment upon the need for and nature of illusion in general. While the novel's occasional philosophical gestures seem glib ("You are no longer quite certain which side of the fence is the dream"), the book enacts its worldview more satisfyingly than could any summary or statement. Rather than forcing its readers to be prisoners in someone else's imagination, Morgenstern's imaginary circus invites readers to join in an exploration of the possible.

Underneath the icy polish of her prose, Morgenstern well understands what makes The Night Circus tick: that Marco and Celia, whether in competition or in love, are part of a wider world they must engage with but also transcend. It’s a world whose mystique and enigma is hard to shake off, and that invites multiple visits.

Follow your dreams, Bailey, she says. Be they Harvard or something else entirely. No matter what that father of yours says, or how loudly he might say it. He forgets that he was someone's dream once himself.

Children are dragged away with promises that they may return the next evening, though the circus will not be there the next evening and later those children will feel slighted and betrayed.

You are no longer quite certain which side of the fence is the dream.

I do not like being left in the dark. I am not particularly fond of believing in impossible things.

You're not destined or chosen, I wish I could tell you that you were if that would make it easier, but it's not true. You're in the right place at the right time, and you care enough to do what needs to be done. Sometimes that's enough.

I find I think of myself not as a writer so much as someone who provides a gateway, a tangential route for readers to reach the circus. To visit the circus again, if only in their minds, when they are unable to attend it physically. I relay it through printed words on crumpled newsprint, words that they can read again and again, returning to the circus whenever they wish, regardless of time of day or physical location. Transporting them at will. When put that way, it sounds rather like magic, doesn't it?

The truest tales require time and familiarity to become what they are.

Wikipedia in English (1)

A circus known as Le Cirque des Reves features two illusionists, Celia and Marco, who are unknowingly competing in a game to which they have been irrevocably bound by their mercurial masters, and as the two fall deeply and passionately in love with each other, their masters intervene with dangerous consequences.

Haiku summary

Magicians in loveForced to duel at the circusPut on a great show.(yoyogod)

Where a boy bears lovers' dreamswith a seer of starsand night goes on forever. (blueviolent)

A light and airyFeast for the senses. But wait,Darkness lurks beneath.(passion4reading)

Amazon Best Books of the Month, September 2011: Erin Morgenstern’s dark, enchanting debut takes us to the black and white tents of Le Cirque des Reves, a circus that arrives without warning, simply appearing when yesterday it was not there. Young Celia and Marco have been cast into a rivalry at The Night Circus, one arranged long ago by powers they do not fully understand. Over time, their lives become more intricately enmeshed in a dance of love, joy, deceit, heartbreak, and magic. Author Morgenstern knows her world inside and out, and she guides the reader with a confident hand. The setting and tone are never less than mesmerizing. The characters are well-realized and memorable. But it is the Night Circus itself that might be the most memorable of all. --Chris Schluep

Waging a fierce competition for which they have trained since childhood, circus magicians Celia and Marco unexpectedly fall in love with each other and share a fantastical romance that manifests in fateful ways.